Beauties of West Sand Lake now on display at exhibition

Artist Constance Alexander sees things that aren't there. She then presents them to the rest of us through her paintings.

The gallery at the Sand Lake Center for the Arts will exhibit some of her works now through May 15, with an opening reception 1-3 p.m. April 14. The display is titled "The West Sand Lake Experience."

"I just came back from a trip took me through the back roads of Rensselaer County," she said, describing how she sees nature differently. "What some see as just 'swamp grass' on the sides of the road growing wild, I see as tall sentinels with golden helmets. Last fall's plowed fields of corn with stubbles still poking up out of the snow, I see as beautifully curving rows leading me to a farmer's barn. The acres of new green crops growing in the summer are like velvet with jewels of seed heads arising out of them."

To record what she sees, Alexander said, "I take my camera everywhere, as if I'm on a photo safari, like the time I dropped a friend off at her farm only to find her granddaughter peering down at a flock of chickens. The light was so compelling that I grabbed my camera and caught it. It is now a painting in West Sand Lake. I know most of the farmers around here and get calls when sheep are ready to be sheared or llamas have been born."

Advertisement

She joked that "I think I've always wanted to be a farmer. Like a farmer, I'm making a profit off my animals -- and theirs!" The artist said that West Sand Lake, where she lives, provides her with many images for her works of art. "As I was getting ready to hang my paintings at the Sand Lake Art Center, I realized that every single one of them -- 18 -- was painted of West Sand Lake. Other painters head for Europe. I find the familiar so compelling that I want to show my friends and neighbors the beauty all around us."

When she begins painting a scene, Alexander continued, she tries to capture something more than a photographic image. "I see many paintings that are technically accurate, but don't move me," she explained. "I like it when I walk into a room, and a painting stops me, and I connect with it. It has integrity. It is honest. The secret to enjoying our surroundings is to be still, take a breath and look as if you were a child again and seeing for the first time." As she paints, she is assisted by people ranging from artist James McNeil Whistler to singer Willie Nelson.

"I can spend all day in my studio," she noted. "I have a beautiful north light, which is ideal for painters as the light stays constant. Works by my favorite painters, like Whistler, Sergei Bongart and Sorolla, stack my bookshelves. I play Yo Yo Ma, Schumann, Willie Nelson or Louis Armstrong when I paint, and I am transported to another world. I'm on vacation, without the hassle of planes." As she thought about what makes an artist, Alexander observed that "some people think you are just born to be an artist. I was born wanting to create. I was an actress in summer stock and at college in an earlier life. But I find that painting dovetails with a quieter and more ordered life. I have seen talented people who don't go far because they don't have the drive. You have to be committed -- like a dog with a bone!"